West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1887-12-22
BIG TURKEY FOUNDRIES.
ONE OF THE CHIEF LIVE STOCK
PRODUCTS OF INDIANA.
Mammoth COops Containing I 600
Turkeys - Preparing the Birds
for Market Pickers' Jokes

have just visited turkey foun.
dry here, says a Newcastle 0nd.) letter
TO the Lewiston (Mc) .Jourhal Hogs
and turkeys are the principal live stock
products OF the " Hog and Hominy''
state, and as a matter of course this is
the season Of the harvesting OF the la ter
crop Neither swine nor fowls are
either housed or fattened neither receiv-
Ing any care, lut run at large from the
time they are first introduced to the
world until they are prepared for the
market. In consequence your Western
bird cannot compete with It's New Eng
land cousin, raised with all due care and
Carcfully fattcned for the market.
Turkey Foundries" are scattered over
tho entire State Six double mule teams
collect turkeys from within n radius Of
ten miles aud bring them TO this foundry
daily. No lloosicr farmer thinks Of
dressing his own birds for the market,
but sells them on the hoof TO the collcc-
tors, receiving six cents per pound for
his flock. The foundry, "a building 5Sx
20 feet. without floor in fact a mann
moth coop, holding 1 1000 turkeys, is
kept well filled by these teams. At one
end is II smaller building, the dressing
room, about 20x10, where the men, wad-
ing almost knce-deep in feathers, pick
turkeys at five cents each, from morning
until night. Each man dressed on
the average five an hour, or fifty
an hour for Tie crew. Nccks are
wrung for Boston, while throats are
stuck for the New York market They
were dressing n In New York to-day,
when visited by your correspondent
Entering the dressing room, attracted
by II tremendous gobblng from the
turks, there appeared ten men, each with
a bird suspended by the feet by cord
from beam overhead, pulling feathers
Tor dear life Ecsidc each man stood
two barrels, one for large tail feathers
and the broad, flat wing feathers that
! grow on the bend of the wing next to
the body. This grade sells for feather
busters. The second barrel received all
soft body feathers sold for many pur-
! poses. AS | entered one picker finished
| his bird and came and sat beside me. In
answer TO inquiry rs to how long it re-
quired to dress bird, he said: eve
are on the last of n pen full now; just
wait and time us and you will see some
| fun
Meanwhile fifty turkeys, large and small,
had been put into 1.-The cage" pen
about eight feet square; but no picker,
| even though he had finished his last bird
/ Of the previous lot, might select one
/ from this and go to work, each as he
| finished must wait for the last alter
developments showed the justice of this.
Conversation among the pickcrS while
waiting the last man turned on the num-
Der of good, fat, easy-picking hens
| among the new lot in the care. and one
/ old ft-o
| body wanted. The moment the last
man finished and hung up his bird all
made grand rush for the pen, and i'm n
moment returned, eacl carrying large
| turkey by the feet. Arriving at his
station, each slipps both feet of his
catch through moose in the cord and
brings the bird down with force, then
9rasps a sharp pointed knife and runs
through the neck, just back of the bill,
cutting all the arteries. Then the wrcs-
tic with feathers begin.
One sweep of the hand takes every tail
| feather into the barrel Two grabs does
the same for the broad feathers of the
wings With one downward sweep
,pacc as large rs the picker's hand is laid
ba'e from tail TO neck. This is kept up
until the body is thoroughly picked.
Then the finger is run into the rent,
hooked around the larger intestine and
the bird is drawn. Not knife is uscd
I'm the whole operation except in killing
the bird. The feet arc now freed from
the moose, the head laid on block and
chopped off, the skin of the neck drawn
back about an inch and chopped off again,
I letting the skin Of the neck cover over
the end where tits tied, and your bird is
ready for market Do you wonder that
they sometimes acquire far away taste
served up at the East2
One picker, from the time he stuck his
bird until he hung him up finished oc-
cuplcd Just seven and onc-haif minutes.
another nine and one-Quarler minutes.
Finally one said he would tackle the
twenty-five pound bull" did so. and
finished him in just eight minutes and
twenty seconds.
] walked into the pen to see them
caught. In would come q picker cast
critical eye over the lot in search of an
easy one, walk along. and with never
failing swOop of the hand, grab a turkey
by the thigh, then hold him up and blow
the feathers away from the under side OF
the wing and rump. If no pin feathers,
o. X. if any, drop him and crab an
other, till n satisfactory one was found
Consequently the last ones of lot of ffty
are very hard to pick, and as each man fin
ishes his last Of the lot nc is required to
wait until all are done, thus giving each
fair chance to begin on the easy ones.
As in everything else, the amateur is
the butt for all jokes. One Of the pickers
found an extra tough, pin feathery bird.
and hid him under a barrel In come,
Mr. Novice hears this bird, and conceives
the idea that some comrade has found
nice bird and hid him for his next. out
he comes in gr at gl,e, hangs uphis prize,
and amid the smiles Of his fellow pfckcrs
proceeds to pick q bird that is "pinny'
from head to toe. Finally, one Of the
pickcrs leaves his bird to speak to an out
slider at the door his comrades improve
this opportunity 60 dctach his half
dressed turkey, and throw il into hogs
head half fullOf feathers. When he re-
turns and is sounding for 10 they quietly
lft his feet from under him and plunge
him headlorcmost after tho turk.
4 Human Gas Factory.